Most Rev. Matthew Gyamfi, Bishop of Sunyani, has expressed concern that the State wanted to take over Mission Schools and abolish the management structures that made them among the best in the country.
He said the State also wanted to eliminate the Management role of the Church �which is the pillar in character formation and discipline at a time when the State is crying foul against indiscipline, immorality, corruption and other vices.�
The Bishop was addressing a two-day Joint National Conference on Education on the theme: Government and Faith-Based Organizations� Partnership for Enhanced Education.
It was attended by about 120 delegates from all over Ghana, including seven Bishops, Regional Managers of Catholic Schools, Teachers and representatives of Catholic Educational Institutions.
The Conference was jointly organized by the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference, the Ministry of Education and STAR-Ghana, a Pool Funding Agency.
Bishop Gyamfi noted that some of the Churches� ideas on education like the computerization admission were sometime ridiculed with insults.
Bishop Gyamfi who is the Episcopal Chairman for Education of the National Catholic Secretariat, said the District and Municipal Directors of Education were responsible for admitting 30 percent of students into Mission Schools without the Church participating.
According to the Bishop, Religious Instructions and Human Formation were some of the main reasons that compelled the Church to �invest heavily in education.
He added, �The Church is woefully under-represented in the Board of Governors of Schools they are supposed to found, own and manage.�
The Bishop told the delegates that those problems and many other unpleasant situation s existed in Church Schools because they were no commonly acceptable partnership between Church and State in education delivery.
He, therefore, appealed to the Minister of Education �to facilitate as soon as possible the crafting of a partnership agreement that is fair to both the Unit Schools and the State.�
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